York, Islanders hand Blackhawks sixth straight loss

Nov 1, 2006 - 3:43 AM
UNIONDALE, New York (Ticker) -- Mike York gave the New York
Islanders' offense the spark it needed.

York scored his third goal of the season and Viktor Kozlov and
Alexei Yashin both tallied as the Islanders created a nice
cushion early en route to a 5-2 victory over the Blackhawks, who
have lost six straight games.

Jason Blake scored his 100th career goal for New York, which won
its fourth consecutive meeting over Chicago.

"We're growing together as a team," Islanders coach Ted Nolan
said. "We're growing together and learning what we need to do
in each situation."

During the power play, York beat Blackhawks goaltender Brian
Boucher on the rebound of Miroslav Satan's shot at 18:19 of the
first period for a 1-0 edge. In the middle session, Kozlov
extended the lead with a backhand with 8:16 left in the period.

Less than three minutes later, Yashin scored a power-play goal
on a slap shot from the top of the left circle to make it 3-0.

Defenseman Tom Poti and Mike Sillinger both added two assists
while netminder Rick DiPietro made 30 saves for New York, which
concluded its seven-game homestand with a 4-1-2 record.

"We took care of business on this homestand," DiPietro said.
"We're working on things to improve, but we're getting points."

Blue-liner Jassen Cullimore and Denis Arkhipov each scored their
first goal of the season for the Blackhawks, who avoided their
fourth straight shutout.

"I think it (the offensive drought) was in our heads, so we
don't have to worry about scoring the next game," Chicago right
wing Radim Vrbata said. "After we scored, we still had a game
to play."

Boucher stopped 19 shots for Chicago.

After the Blackhawks crept within 3-2 early in the final period,
Sillinger scored on a wrist shot from in close with 2:30 left
and then fed Blake with 53 seconds to play to cap the scoring.

"We gave ourselves some breathing room," Sillinger said. "I got
a lucky bounce and I just poked it in."

"The biggest thing is we are playing a full 60 minutes and we
are aware of the situation we are in," Blake said.